Socrates the great Greek philosopher is credited with the quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Socrates believed that living your life blindly without actually examining it is not worth living. As Christians, we know that every life is worth living because Jesus died on the cross so that we can have life but does that mean that we should live our lives as Christians without any self-examination at all? What does the bible say about examining our spiritual life especially after we accept Jesus Christ?
There are many verses in the bible that talk about self-examination. David says in Psalm 26:2 “Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart.’ In this verse we see David crying out to the Lord to examine him and to find out what is in his heart and his mind and test him so he can correct anything that might be wrong in the eyes of the Lord.
The apostle Paul again talks about examining our lives as Christians in 2 Corinthians 13:4-6, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.” Paul here again makes the case that we need to examine our lives and test ourselves so that we can live a life that is pleasing in the eyes of our Lord without falling into sin.
Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This verse was meant for his disciples but it applies to all Christians. If we are not watchful and alert we could easily fall into temptation because our flesh is weak and we live in a world of sin. Not only is it hard to not fall into sin but it is impossible. Only one man has managed to live without sin and his name is Jesus. If we live our lives without taking any time to examine our then we will not be able to find those areas that need to be fixed. This will result in sin that can hinder our relationship with our savior.
In Psalm 51:10-11 David says “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” David knew that he was not perfect and he often cried out to the Lord to help him fix his imperfections. If we want to grow spiritually then we must ask the Lord to help us examine our lives and identify areas of sin that need to be fixed so we can walk in his ways. Self-examination is always needed in the life of every Christian to avoid sin from taking over in certain areas. The only way to do this successfully is to take it to our Lord in prayer and ask Him to show us areas that we need to fix right away.